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| �1998 ESPN/WTA |
| Seles and Graf to meet after more than 2 years. |
NEW YORK (Nov. 19) -- Fifth-seeded Monica Seles of the United States will square off with Germany's Steffi Graf for the first time in over two years tonight during quarterfinal action at the season-ending Chase Championships of the COREL WTA TOUR.
Seles, overcoming the effects of food poisoning, reached the quarterfinals on Wednesday with a straight-sets win over Russian Anna Kournikova. Graf took advantage of a cramping Jana Novotna and eliminated the defending champion Tuesday night.
Also on tap today is an unseeded encounter between Dominique van Roost of Belgium and Romania's Irina Spirlea, who have been idle since recording upsets over their Spanish foes on Monday.
Seles, who became sick from a meal in Philadelphia and spent all of Monday and the better part of Tuesday in bed recovering, needed just 65 minutes Wednesday for her first win in Madison Square Garden since capturing her third straight title in 1992.
The 24-year-old Seles has won 11 of her last 13 matches since falling to Martina Hingis in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open.
Kournikova could have won her debut at this tournament but committed 17 double-faults, raising her total over her last three matches to 54.
Graf, a five-time winner here, entered this week having won back-to-back tournaments in Germany and Philadelphia. It will be her first meeting with Seles since winning in the final of the 1996 U.S. Open, and the first meeting before a final since the fourth round of Wimbledon in 1989.
Van Roost needed a tiebreak in the first set before cruising in the second to oust No. 7 Conchita Martinez on Monday. The 25-year-old qualified for the 16-player field for the first time in her seven-year pro career.
Spirlea also opened with a tiebreak win before posting a straight-sets victory against fourth seed Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who fell in the first round for the third time in the last four years.
On Wednesday, top-seeded Lindsay Davenport of the U.S. rebounded from a poor first set and a bad call in the second set to drive past Sandrine Testud and into the quarterfinals.
Davenport, assured of becoming the first American-born woman to end the year as the world's top-ranked player since Chris Evert in1981, was within two points of an unsightly first-round loss but rallied to beat her French opponent, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-0.
She plays another Frenchwoman, Nathalie Tauziat, in Friday's quarterfinal.
Davenport, who earned the biggest victory of her career in New York at the U.S. Open, wrapped up the year's top ranking Monday when Sanchez Vicario lost to Spirlea. That loss denied No. 2 Hingis the opportunity to collect bonus points she would have needed to unseat Davenport, a winner of a tour-leading six titles this year.
Also, sixth-seeded Mary Pierce of France lost just one game in overpowering Amanda Coetzer of South Africa. Pierce has has been hot of late, winning back-to-back titles last month at the Ladies Kremlin Cup and Seat Open to give her four titles in 1998.
The runner-up at this event last year, Pierce meets Hingis in the quarters. Hingis rallied past countrywoman Patty Schnyder on Tuesday night.
